The present invention relates to the delivery of digital data or multimedia via a terrestrial wireless broadcast. More specifically, the present invention relates to methods, apparatus and systems for delivery of digital data to stationary receivers over a terrestrial wireless link at a low data rate using a new coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (COFDM) scheme.
The term “terrestrial broadcast” generally refers to broadcasting of a signal from a point on earth, for example from a transmission tower positioned on high ground or the top of a building, rather than from a satellite transmitter.
Current terrestrial digital broadcasting schemes are complex and generally require Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) implementations to achieve the high rate throughput. Existing standards-based ASICs do not scale for use with low bandwidth application. In addition, known single carrier techniques require complex time equalization algorithms to overcome the degradation of multipath fading induced by terrestrial channels, such as the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) broadcast channel.
It would be advantageous to provide a simple and reliable way to transmit digital data via a low rate terrestrial wireless broadcast to fixed (stationary) receivers. It would be advantageous to provide a scheme for terrestrial wireless broadcast of digital data that can be implemented using simple, low cost, digital signal processor (DSP) technology.
The present invention provides methods, apparatus, and systems having the foregoing and other advantages.